Rangeelo works with handicraft artisans to craft ethnic clothing

Ethnic wear and its market in India is pretty large. As of 2019, the market value stood at $17.18 billion taking up about 32% of the total Indian apparel market. Out of this the women’s ethnic wear segment held about 81% putting it up as one of the biggest categories in Indian ethnic wear.

Venturing out into the same category is Rangeelo. Having started the brand in 2023, founders Kushal Udaiwal and Preeti Udaiwal wanted the brand to be specifically dedicated to ethnic clothing for occasions and festivals.

Being from a family of entrepreneurs and traditional block printers, the couple work with over 100 artisans to create clothing with Sanganeri block prints and handprints. The company works with fabrics like chanderi, georgette, cotton, mulmul, chiffon, organza among others. The clothing pieces are made incorporating techniques like mirror work, tie and dye, block printing, gota, and thread embroidery.

“My father was a national awardee for hand block prints in 1991 and still continues to work with such artisans. A lot of the clothing items are inspired from the Rajasthani culture integrating a lot of the crafts and techniques usually seen in our clothing as a dedication to my father and his work.”, said Kushal CEO and co-founder of the company.

Approximately 70% of the wage artisans are onboarded to exclusively work for the company and its products. The rest work on an order-to-order basis. The company has a group of in-house designers who ideate and design all the clothing put up on the platform. Apart from this they also work on custom orders that are commissioned by customers.

Raw materials like laces, threads, and other accessories are sourced from local vendors to maintain the authenticity of the fabric as well as to manage cash flow. Maintaining inclusivity, the platform offers a range of sizing varying from XS to 3XL.

While the platform works in a D2C model and delivers pan India, it sees around 50% of its orders coming in from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The brand is currently available in its platform as well as an e-commerce marketplace, The Loom.

Having started functions only during March this year, the platform has seen a revenue of Rs 12 lakh in the past 20 days and is expecting to end the month of April with a revenue of Rs 22 lakhs.

Rangeelo plans to gain 6,000 novel users within the next 6 months, producing a revenue of Rs 2.5 crore and subsequently Rs 5 crore by the end of the financial year. It additionally has plans to start an occasional wear brand in the kids wear section, Lilly Buds, within the next year.